 |
|
|
|||||
For retirement savers and retirees, the new year brings more than the usual inflation adjustments to retirement contributions. The retirement legislation known as Secure 2.0 will also continue to phase in, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act will have impacts too.Here’s a roundup of three key changes and some moves to consider. Roth-only catch-up contributions for high-income 401(k) investors Thanks to a provision in the Secure 2.0 retirement legislation, high-income earners (with $150,000 or more in FICA income in the prior year) who are over 50 and investing in 401(k) or other company retirement plans must make catch-up contributions to their plans’ Roth option, rather than traditional tax-deferred contributions, starting this year.For 2026, 401(k) investors under 50 can contribute $24,500 to their company plans, plus $8,000 in catch-up contributions if they’re over 50, for a total of $32,500. In addition, people age 60 to 63 can make “super-catch-up” contributions: $11,250 on top of $24,500.Potential Action Items: Some 401(k) plans may not have a Roth option, so those participants should instead consider making a full IRA contribution in addition to their baseline 401(k) contributions ($24,500).This year, the IRA contribution limit is $8,600 for people over 50and $7,500 for those under 50. If you can invest even more than that, steer the overage to a taxable brokerage account.A separate issue is how 401(k) investors should proceed if their goal is to make traditional tax-deferred contributions rather than Roth. Secure 2.0 forces higher-income older workers into Roth, at least with the catch-up portion of their contributions. In that case, workers can contribute the base 401(k) limit ($24,500) to the traditional tax-deferred option, with catch-up contributions directed to the Roth option. Higher SALT deduction amounts Thanks to OBBBA, taxpayers can now deduct a higher amount of state and local taxes. The SALT deduction cap was increased from $10,000 to $40,000 starting in 2025. It will revert to $10,000 in 2030.Potential Action Items: How is this related to retirement? The amount of SALT that’s deductible phases out for higher-income taxpayersthose with modified adjusted gross incomes over $500,000. High-income earners should consider ways to come in under $500,000 if they’re close. They might favor contributions to traditional tax-deferred retirement plans rather than Roth or max out their health savings accounts. Qualifying for the higher SALT tax deduction might also argue against strategies that increase income, such as converting traditional IRAs to Roth.Of course, don’t miss the forest for the trees. Strategies like making Roth contributions or converting IRAs might make sense long-term, even if they curtail the deductibility of SALT. Senior deduction Through 2028, people 65and up can take advantage of a new $6,000 deduction. It’s available whether you itemize or not and doubles to $12,000 for married couples filing jointly, assuming both are 65. For non-itemizers, the new deduction would stack on top of standard deductions.Here’s how the deductions look this year: Single filers (standard deduction): $16,100 Single filers over 65: $16,100+ $2,050 + $6,000 = $24,150 Married couples filing jointly (standard deduction): $32,200 Married couples over 65 filing jointly: $32,200 + $1,650×2 + $6,000×2 = $47,500 Higher-income seniors, take note: Income limits apply. The deduction is reduced for single filers with modified adjusted gross incomes over $75,000 and married couples filing jointly with MAGI over $150,000.It goes away entirely for singles with MAGI over $175,000 and married couples filing jointly with MAGI of $250,000 or more. Potential Action Items: Early retirees who have a lot of control over their taxable income levels because they’re not yet receiving Social Security or subject to required minimum distributions may be tempted to try to keep MAGI down to qualify for the full deduction. But it’s wise to balance those aims alongside other worthwhile tactics, such as converting traditional IRA balances to Roth. This article was provided to The Associated Press by Morningstar. For more retirement content, go to https://www.morningstar.com/retirement.ChristineBenz is director of personal finance and retirement planning for Morningstar. Christine Benz of Morningstar
Category:
E-Commerce
The U.S. took the unprecedented step Monday of cutting the number of vaccines it recommends for every child a move that leading medical groups said would undermine protections against a half-dozen diseases.The change is effective immediately, meaning that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will now recommend that all children get vaccinated against 11 diseases. What’s no longer broadly recommended is protection against flu, rotavirus, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, some forms of meningitis or RSV. Instead, protections against those diseases are only recommended for certain groups deemed high risk, or when doctors recommend them in what’s called “shared decision-making.”Trump administration officials said the overhaul, a move long sought by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., won’t result in families who want the vaccines losing access to them, and said insurance will continue to pay. But medical experts said the decision creates confusion for parents and could increase preventable diseases.States, not the federal government, have the authority to require vaccinations for schoolchildren. While CDC requirements often influence those state regulations, some states have begun creating their own alliances to counter the Trump administration’s guidance on vaccines.The change comes as U.S. vaccination rates have been slipping and the share of children with exemptions has reached an all-time high, according to federal data. At the same time, rates of diseases that can be protected against with vaccines, such as measles and whooping cough, are rising across the country. Review came at the request of President Trump The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the overhaul was in response to a request from President Donald Trump in December. Trump asked the agency to review how peer nations approach vaccine recommendations and consider revising U.S. guidance accordingly.HHS said its comparison to 20 peer nations found that the U.S. was an “outlier” in both the number of vaccinations and the number of doses it recommended to all children. Officials with the agency framed the change as a way to increase public trust by recommending only the most important vaccinations for children to receive.“This decision protects children, respects families, and rebuilds trust in public health,” Kennedy said in a statement Monday.Trump, reacting to the news on his Truth Social platform, said the new schedule is “far more reasonable” and “finally aligns the United States with other Developed Nations around the World.”Among those left on the recommended-for-everyone list are vaccines against measles, whooping cough, polio, tetanus, chickenpox and human papillomavirus, or HPV. The guidance reduces the number of recommended vaccine doses against HPV from two or three shots depending on age to one for most children.Medical experts said Monday’s changes without what they said was public discussion or a transparent review of the data would put children at risk.“Abandoning recommendations for vaccines that prevent influenza, hepatitis and rotavirus, and changing the recommendation for HPV without a public process to weigh the risks and benefits, will lead to more hospitalizations and preventable deaths among American children,” said Michael Osterholm of the Vaccine Integrity Project, based at the University of Minnesota.Dr. Sean O’Leary of the American Academy of Pediatrics said countries carefully consider vaccine recommendations based on levels of disease in their populations and their health systems.“You can’t just copy and paste public health and that’s what they seem to be doing here,” said O’Leary. “Literally children’s health and children’s lives are at stake.”Most high-income countries recommend vaccinations against a dozen to 15 serious pathogens, according to a recent review by the Vaccine Integrity Project, a group that works to safeguard vaccine use.France today recommends all children get vaccinated against 14 diseases, compared to the 11 that the U.S. now will recommend for every child under the new schedule. Doctors’ groups criticize decision The changes were made by political appointees, without any evidence that the current recommendations were harming children, O’Leary said.The pediatricians’ group has issued its own childhood vaccine schedule that its members are following, and it continues to broadly recommend vaccines that the Trump administration demoted.O’Leary singled out the flu vaccine, which the government and leading medical experts have long urged for nearly everyone starting at age 6 months. He said the government is “pretty tone deaf” for ending its recommendation while the country is at the beginning of a severe flu season, and after 280 children died from flu last winter, the most since 2009.Even a disease that parents may not have heard of, rotavirus, could come roaring back if vaccination erodes, he added. That diarrheal disease once hospitalized thousands of children each winter, something that no longer happens.The decision was made without input from an advisory committee that typically consults on the vaccine schedule, said senior officials at HHS. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the changes publicly.The officials added that the new recommendations were a collaborative effort between federal health agencies but wouldn’t specify who was consulted.Scientists at the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases were asked to present to the agency’s political leadership about vaccine schedules in other countries in December, but they were not allowed to give any recommendations and were not aware of any decisions about vaccine schedule changes, said Abby Tighe, executive director of the National Public Health Coalition, an advocacy organization of current and former CDC employees and their supporters.“Changes of this magnitude require careful review, expert and public input, and clear scientific justification. That level of rigor and transparency was not part of this decision,” said Dr. Sandra Fryhofer, of the American Medical Association. “The scientific evidence remains unchanged, and the AMA supports continued access to childhood immunizations recommended by national medical specialty societies.” Kennedy is a longtime vaccine skeptic The move comes as Kennedy, a longtime activist against vaccines, has repeatedly used his authority in government to translate his skepticism about the shots into national guidance.In May, Kennedy announced the CDC would no longer recommend COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children and pregnant women a move immediately questioned by public health experts who saw no new data to justify the change.In June, Kennedy fired an entire 17-member CDC vaccine advisory committee later installing several of his own replacements, including multiple vaccine skeptis.Kennedy in November also personally directed the CDC to abandon its position that vaccines do not cause autism, without supplying any new evidence to support the change. Swenson reported from New York. Associated Press writer Mike Stobbe contributed to this report. _The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Ali Swenson and Lauran Neergaard, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
GameStop Corp. is forging ahead with efforts to reduce its physical footprint in the first weeks of 2026. The video game retailer is closing stores in numerous states this month, according to local media reports, and emails and store signage shared by customers on social media, part of its ongoing effort to reduce costs and adapt to changes in shopping habits. The closures are not completely unexpected. In its third-quarter earnings report on December 9, GameStop said it had already closed 590 stores in the United States during the previous fiscal year as part of a “store portfolio optimization review.” In a December filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the retailer reiterated its plan to shutter a “significant number of additional stores” during its 2025 fiscal year. GameStop’s fiscal year ends on January 31, 2026. GameStop reported net income of $77 million on revenue of $821 million for the third quarter, but the latter figure was below a consensus estimate cited by Reuters. The retailer’s shares have sagged since their heyday at the center of the 2021 meme stock frenzy, when retail traders bought shares en masse, causing losses for short sellers who had bet against the stock. Over the last 12 months, GameStop’s stock (NYSE: GME) has declined roughly 36%. Which GameStop stores are closing in 2026? The retailer has not provided a list of stores that are expected to close and did not respond to Fast Company‘s requests for additional details. We’ll update this story as we learn more. GameStop customers have been sharing emailsostensibly from individual locationsand signage on some stores that indicates imminent closures. The communications have included various closure dates throughout this week and next. Local media outlets have also reported on individual store closings, in locations ranging from Topsham, Maine; to Ann Arbor, Michigan; to Topeka, Kansas, and beyond. At the beginning of last year, GameStop reported 2,325 stores in the United States. This story is developing . . .
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||